Psychological interventions for antisocial personality disorder

Background Antisocial personality disorder (AsPD) is associated with a wide range of disturbance including persistent rule-breaking, criminality, substance use, unemployment, homelessness and relationship difficulties. Objectives To evaluate the potential beneficial and adverse effects of psychological interventions for people with AsPD. Search strategy Our search included CENTRAL Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ASSIA, BIOSIS and COPAC. Selection criteria Prospective, controlled trials in which participants with AsPD were randomly allocated to a psychological intervention and a control condition (either treatment as usual, waiting list or no treatment). Data collection and analysis Three authors independently selected studies. Two authors independently extracted data. We calculated mean differences, with odds ratios for dichotomous data. Main results Eleven studies involving 471 participants with AsPD met the inclusion criteria, although data were available from only five studies involving 276 participants with AsPD. Only two studies focused solely on an AsPD sample. Eleven different psychological interventions were examined. Only two studies reported on reconviction, and only one on aggression. Compared to the control condition, cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) plus standard maintenance was superior for outpatients with cocaine dependence in one study, but CBT plus treatment as usual was not superior for male outpatients with recent verbal/physical violence in another. Contingency management plus standard maintenance was superior for drug misuse for outpatients with cocaine dependence in one study but not in another, possibly because of differences in the behavioural intervention. However, contingency management was superior in social functioning and counselling session attendance in the latter. A multi-component intervention utilising motivational interviewing principles, the 'Driving Whilst Intoxicated program', plus incarceration was superior to incarceration alone for imprisoned drink-driving offenders. Authors' conclusions Results suggest that there is insufficient trial evidence to justify using any psychological intervention for adults with AsPD. Disappointingly few of the included studies addressed the primary outcomes defined in this review (aggression, reconviction, global functioning, social functioning, adverse effects). Three interventions (contingency management with standard maintenance; CBT with standard maintenance; 'Driving Whilst Intoxicated program' with incarceration) appeared effective, compared to the control condition, in terms of improvement in at least one outcome in at least one study. Each of these interventions had been originally developed for people with substance misuse problems. Significant improvements were mainly confined to outcomes related to substance misuse. No study reported significant change in any specific antisocial behaviour. Further research is urgently needed for this prevalent and costly condition.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD007668.pub2/ful

Psychological interventions for people with narcissistic personality disorder

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: This review aims to evaluate the potential beneficial and adverse effects of psychological interventions for people with narcissistic personality disorder. Copyright © 2014 The Cochrane Collaboration. Reason for withdrawal from publication: Authors have made no progress with this protocol in over a year due to difficulties with identifying potentially suitable studies. The protocol has been withdrawn.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009690.pub2/abstrac

Effects of Trophic Skewing of Species Richness on Ecosystem Functioning in a Diverse Marine Community

Widespread overharvesting of top consumers of the world’s ecosystems has “skewed” food webs, in terms of biomass and species richness, towards a generally greater domination at lower trophic levels. This skewing is exacerbated in locations where exotic species are predominantly low-trophic level consumers such as benthic macrophytes, detritivores, and filter feeders. However, in some systems where numerous exotic predators have been added, sometimes purposefully as in many freshwater systems, food webs are skewed in the opposite direction toward consumer dominance. Little is known about how such modifications to food web topology, e.g., changes in the ratio of predator to prey species richness, affect ecosystem functioning. We experimentally measured the effects of trophic skew on production in an estuarine food web by manipulating ratios of species richness across three trophic levels in experimental mesocosms. After 24 days, increasing macroalgal richness promoted both plant biomass and grazer abundance, although the positive effect on plant biomass disappeared in the presence of grazers. The strongest trophic cascade on the experimentally stocked macroalgae emerged in communities with a greater ratio of prey to predator richness (bottom-rich food webs), while stronger cascades on the accumulation of naturally colonizing algae (primarily microalgae with some early successional macroalgae that recruited and grew in the mesocosms) generally emerged in communities with greater predator to prey richness (the more top-rich food webs). These results suggest that trophic skewing of species richness and overall changes in food web topology can influence marine community structure and food web dynamics in complex ways, emphasizing the need for multitrophic approaches to understand the consequences of marine extinctions and invasions

The Uses of Race and Religion: James Baldwin’s Pragmatist Politics in <i>The Fire Next Time</i>

In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin argues that the American dream is far from being a reality in part because there is much Americans do not wish to know about themselves. Given the current political climate in the United States, this idea seems just as timely as it did in the 1960s. Baldwin’s politics and thinking about race and religion are informed by an optimistic belief in the human capacity to love and change for the better, in contrast with Ta-Nehisi Coates, the heir apparent to Baldwin’s legacy. Considering current events, it seems particularly useful to turn back to The Fire Next Time. Not only does Baldwin provide a foundation for understanding racism in the United States, but more importantly, he provides some much-needed hope and guidance for the future. Baldwin discusses democracy as an act that must be realized, in part by coming to a greater understanding of race and religion as performative acts that have political consequences for all Americans. In this article, I examine the influence of pragmatism on Baldwin’s understanding of race and religion. By encouraging readers to acknowledge race and religion as political constructs, Baldwin highlights the inseparability of theory and practice that is a hallmark of both pragmatism and the realization of a democratic society. Furthermore, I argue that Baldwin’s politics provide a more useful framework than Coates’s for this particular historical moment because of Baldwin’s emphasis on change and evolving democracy

Affective disruption: Walter Benjamin and the 'history' of Ireland's industrial schools

What role do organizations play in writing history? In this paper, I address the part played by organizations in the enactment of large-scale violence, and focus on the ways in which the resulting histories come to be written. Drawing on the case of Ireland's industrial schools, I demonstrate how such accounts can act to serve the interests of those in power, effectively silencing and marginalizing weaker people. A theoretical lens that draws on ideas from Walter Benjamin and Judith Butler is helpful in understanding this; the concept of 'affective disruption' enables an exploration of how people's experiences of organizational violence can be reclaimed from the past, and protected in a continuous remembrance. Overall, this paper contributes a new perspective on the writing of organizational histories, particularly in relation to the enactment of violence. peer-reviewe

Pharmacological interventions for schizoid personality disorder

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To evaluate the effects of pharmacological interventions for people with schizoid personality disorder (SPD). Copyright © 2014 The Cochrane Collaboration. Reason for withdrawal from publication: Authors have made no progress with this protocol in over three years due to difficulties with identifying potentially suitable studies. The protocol has been withdrawn.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009048.pub2/ful